


Round Robin January 2021

by sinsrfun10



Series: Round-Robin Stories by Month [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Dimensions, Darkness, Death, Gen, Mentions of Massacre, Mentions of War, Motherless Baby, Promises, Record Company, duffle bag, graphic description of dying, promising death things, this is not hell, three-headed dog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:34:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 10,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinsrfun10/pseuds/sinsrfun10
Summary: A NEW STORY!!!!! Our new prompt is "A Promise With Death."Calenlas, Laicolasse, and sinsrfun10 are having fun coming up with a new promise everyday. :-)
Relationships: Death & Baby Zelina, Gregory Xoi/Emilia Dlaun, Rhian & Donn, Samantha LaLri & Frederica Xoi, Zach & Hades, Zach & Ren
Series: Round-Robin Stories by Month [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952620
Kudos: 1





	1. January Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter of the new story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments made while writing these rules: "I can't wait for February" "We can't talk about February" "We're not talking about February; we're hypothesizing about AD February" "And really, I wasn't talking. I was whispering." "Now we have to define talking." "No we don't. There are more loopholes that way." "Pretends to be proficient in sign language so we can talk about it." "/signing 'no' repeatedly/ You know what I'm signing at you, right?" "Yes, I'm one hundred percent aware of what you're signing at me." "Okay, what was I supposed to add after that?" "Did you already add the whispering part?" "Skimmed the story. Read the notes. referencing October" "Good luck trying to figure out who said what here." "I'm still trying to figure out who said what here." "We can't even tell who the author is here. Thank you for adding the clarifications on who said what. referencing the October Notes" "Did you like my note on the armor? Wait 'til you guys see what I did to her armor. grins evilly while referencing November story (currently in production)"  
> "I'm sending those to you so you know what loopholes to make referencing General Rules doc"  
> While amending the rules for clarity: "The rules are in a different order than other months!"

  1. A writer is allowed to black any text she chooses aside from the exceptions stated in Clause 2
  2. A writer is not allowed to black character names or physical descriptions
    1. Amendment: a writer may not block significant world-building details such as but not limited to “The nearest body of water is 50 miles away” 
  3. The document is shared in order of writing
    1. Amendment: A writer may not AD write for a prior day. In other words, she must complete her turn before handing the story to the next writer and cannot continue her turn after handing the story over even as an AD self.
  4. When "The End" is written, the round-robin writing has come to an end and all writers will review the story
    1. Amendment: “The End” cannot be written prior to January 31, 2021
  5. Order: Sidney→ Bailey → Sam *When you complete your turn, add a comment addressed to the next person (that is their signal to begin writing)
    1. Amendment: Send a text or verbally tell the next writer when it is her turn
  6. This is called “A Promise With Death”
    1. Amendment: the first paragraph of a new day must contain a new promise
    2. Amendment: old promises can be referenced, but they do not count as the new promise
    3. Amendment: there can be more than one death character
    4. Amendment: death does not necessarily need to make appearances outside of references, though appearances may be enjoyable
    5. Amendment: a character may make multiple promises to the same or different death characters over the span of time
    6. Amendment on 9 January 2021. Each writer must continue a specific granted story on her turn for this month in addition to any other writing she does.
      1. For Calenlas, the assigned story is the adventures of the dimensional travelers (continued).
      2. For Laicolasse, the assigned story is death and a baby.
      3. For Sinsrfun10, the assigned story is Zach.
  7. The first writer to begin writing on a new day must date the document at the location where she begins writing after inserting a page break
    1. Amendment: if the writer realizes it is a new day while writing, she must make every effort to move what she has written on the new day to the new day unless it breaks a sentence.
    2. Amendment: If a writer is unable to or finds extreme hassle to add a header due to the device she is writing on, she may request that another writer add the page break and header for her and must indicate [where]* the break is.
    3. Amendment: It is allowable for one or more writers to set up the dated page breaks in advance so that they are prepared for all writers as needed.
    4. *Amendment on 4 February 2021.



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C misreads “world-building” as “word-building” and is corrected  
> C: So we can only block whole words. Not suffixes or prefixes.  
> S: So if you have a character that’s stuttering, it’s not blocked. Sorry hunny.  
> Discussion of what constitutes word building details and hot debate over whether a root is a word building detail or not. And what constitutes a root. The following was our conclusion:  
> \---prise------ (surprisingly).


	2. 1 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We begin our adventures with death...or a multitude of deaths.
> 
> Day one word count: 1,074 words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments made while writing this fic: "I find it hilarious that Samantha is still vanguard with a buck knife when they have a sword wielder."

Okay, so interdimensional travel, power over fire, water, or some combination of the two, weird science-fiction and fantasy adventures, and human transmutation were no longer the strangest things Emilia could think of. Making a promise with death was. She had just promised death that, in exchange for not purposefully trying to get them killed (because ‘you may be immortal but that doesn’t mean you can’t be killed’), she, Greg, Samantha, and Fred - who was now around five years old and absolutely adorable - would go clean up a mess in a dimension that Death swore was ‘not actually Hell.’ What the mess was would apparently be clarified after they got there, and how they were supposed to clean it up was still a mystery. Also, all four of them were required to go, and Death was going to personally transfer them.

Emilia decided to make a list of all the reasons this could go wrong.

  1. It was a promise with Death.
  2. Death had promised to not actively try to get them killed if they did this, so it was clearly dangerous.
  3. Frederica was still learning to control her powers over fire and water and if she sneezed bad things could happen.
  4. Greg appraised the contract that they had signed with Death to formalize the promise as permanently binding, and it had included a clause about not being able to leave the ‘not Hell’ dimension until the mess was ‘cleaned up.’
  5. Emilia was still trying to understand exactly how her healing powers worked which meant that she might or might not be able to heal any injuries they might incur.
  6. Samantha kept trying to expand her tracking skills to ‘danger sense’ as well which required that she find danger to see if it was working or not.



Emilia sighed. There was no going back now.

She picked Fred up in her arms and held her daughter tightly as a red portal opened up in front of the four of them. Swallowing hard, she walked through, her daughter in her arms, her husband to her right, and Samantha to her left, hot pink buck knife drawn at the ready. Greg had a sword at his side (he had traded his sabre for a longsword at Dev’s recommendation and instruction after the darkness had been burned out of them), and Emilia had a bow and quiver slung across her back. The pack of supplies was in Fred’s arms since she had declared she wanted something to carry (though really that meant Emilia was carrying it since she was carrying Fred).

“Like hell this isn’t Hell.” Samantha declared as the portal closed behind them and the interdimensional travelers found themselves standing on a precipice overlooking a vast expanse of red-rock and obsidian landscape with almost no plantlife.

Three red moons hung in an otherwise onyx sky, and demonic-looking beings meandered about the terrain far below the precipice. Here and there in the distance Emilia thought she saw fire spewing from the tops of mountains and rationalized that there must be quite a few volcanoes. One was fairly close, and a river of lava ran from the base of the volcano right past the precipice they stood on, though a little removed. The entire place was hot - likely a hundred degrees at the least. Samantha and Fred would be fine - their affinity with fire had seemingly made them somewhat indifferent to the heat. Greg and Emilia didn’t have that benefit, though Fred started playing with her water and getting her parents wet which helped them combat the heat.

“I suppose our first task is to get down from here and find shelter.” Emilia stated. She was shocked, yes, but unfazed.

Actually, none of them were particularly fazed. Greg, Emilia, and Samantha had been through so many strange adventures that they were becoming quite accustomed to, well, strangeness. And Frederica had never exactly had a normal life to begin with. She was, after all, born in a log cabin in an alternate dimension with the ability to manipulate both water and fire, and the first person she had met after her parents and honorary aunt was a strange being who had apparently been the reincarnation of evil but had the darkness burnt off him by their daughter’s sneeze.

Emilia had known at the time that something had changed about her, Greg, and Samantha, and clearly her daughter was special from birth. Just how special and how much had changed, they hadn’t fully realized until Death showed up a few hours ago and started complaining about how humans were supposed to have a set lifespan and saying that he should just trick the world into killing them since they were an exception. Of course, then he rapidly changed his mind and stated that he might as well make use of their abilities instead _if_ they would sign a contract with him anyway.

Greg pointed to a mountain that wasn’t too far away and which wasn’t spewing fire and did seem to have a cave about halfway up and stating, “Let’s aim there,” pulled Emilia back to the present.

“No.” Samantha chided. “Look closer, there’s something flying near the mouth of the cave.”

Sure enough, Emilia spotted what looked like oversized bats flitting around the mountain in the distance. Great.

“Then where does the tracking expert suggest we go?” Greg questioned.

Samantha scrunched up her face. “Give me a minute.”

“No minute!” Fred caught their attention, pointing behind the trio of adults. “Look!”

Emilia, Greg, and Samantha spun around to see a very large, very angry-looking three-headed dog rushing up the mountain that they stood atop.

“Guess the danger sense is still a work in progress.” Greg teased.

Samantha glared at Greg before drawing her hot pink buck knife. “That is clearly Cerberus!” She shouted. “Like hell this isn’t Hell!”

“Well, technically, Cerberus guards the Underworld, not Hell.” Emilia rejoined unhelpfully.

“True,” Greg joined in, “but its nickname is ‘the three-headed dog of Hell.’”

Samantha rolled her eyes and took a ready stance at the vanguard, joined by Greg who pulled the sword from his side. Emilia carefully set Fred by her feet before drawing her bow.

The three-headed dog of (not) Hell roared.

Then it rolled on its side and whined. 

“Doggy!” Before anyone could catch her, Fred ran over to the giant dog, climbed up, and started rubbing its belly. And it seemed happy about this.

Maybe it wasn’t hell afterall…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The clarification of hell implies that is, in fact, a hell dimension.”
> 
> “It’s probably bigger than she is, so how would Fred even think she could carry it?!... Samantha.”
> 
> “So, guess where I got this.”  
> “[redacted]”  
> “You wrote three sentences!”  
> “Yes. You were here when I did this.”


	3. 2 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day two total: 654  
> Two-day total: 1,728
> 
> A new character!

He walked into a record company. It wasn’t just a record company, it was _the_ record company that songwriters like him dreamed to work for. Walking to the reception desk, he muttered beneath his breath, “I promise I will dedicate all of my music to you if I get this contract. Killing me with a tumor means less music dedicated to you, Hades.”

The secretary at the desk was cheery. It didn’t seem odd for the over six foot tall and built secretary to skip everywhere he went. The man had that sunny of a disposition. 

He directed Zach to wait on a couch down the hall past the reception desk. A few minutes later the secretary sunnily called out for Zach. 

“Yeah, um, you called me?” Zach asked the man beaming behind the desk. 

“They want you upstairs. Take the second elevator on the left to the third floor. Their office is the fifth on the right. Can’t miss it-it has their name on it.”

Zach was taken a little aback. “Whose name am I looking for?”

“Ren Star, of course,” he chirped, waving Zach to the elevators as he answered the telephone that began to ring. 

A shiver went down Zach’s spine as he made his way to the elevator. He straightened his back and ignored the warning his body was giving him about this meeting. 

The trip to the third floor was quick. Zach wasn’t sure about the elevator music though-it seemed off-putting and discordant. 

‘It was the fifth office on the right,’ he thought to himself, nervously adjusting his long sleeved button-up shirt. 

The office door was plain with one distinguishing feature. It had an ornate nameplate declaring that the office belonged to L. Ren Star. Reading the name, Zach shivered again. 

Outside the door, Zach adjusted his shirt and pants to look presentable. An hour of public transportation can ruffle anyone’s look. 

Blowing out a deep breath, he knocked. An airy voice called for Zach to come in. 

The door opened easily under Zach’s hand and the inside of the office was beautiful. It had multiple instruments displayed on the walls next to signed posters of artists from this label. A small desk sat in the middle of the room. It had a computer monitor and a few files on it. The desk seemed spartan compared to the wonder of the walls that Zach could see. 

Behind the desk was a woman. She had bright blue hair, ombreing out into a yellow then red at the tips. She was beautiful. There was a scar on her neck, only partially hidden by the high necked top she wore. Zach didn’t notice it until forty minutes into this meeting, but the scar only added to the beautiful woman behind the desk. 

“Zachariah!” She announced cheerfully. “Come in, sit down.”

He sat and internally moaned at how comfortable the seat was. Public transportation was not a comfortable seat. 

“Zachariah-”

“Zach, Ms. Star,” he politely interrupted. 

“No Ms. please. Call me Ren or Luci,” she replied.

“Okay Ren.”

“Thank you. As I was saying, Zach I have an offer for you.” She quickly pulled a file off of her desk and handed it to him. “The offer is this, one album with writing and artist royalties no more than market rate. We will have majority creative control on this album. We will choose the producers and any co-writers you work with to create your debut. Any album after this first one will give majority creative control to you and the producers of your choice. You will also get a bump in artist royalties of one-and-a-half percent.”

She stopped herself there. Zach thinks she saw the look on his face. He knew his eyes were wide and his mouth might also have been opened in shock. He knew his gaze kept going back and forth between Ren and the open folder in his lap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L: /stopps and looks in disbelief at S:/ “It didn’t seem odd?”  
> S: “Keep reading!”  
> L: /reads… looks up/ “That is one sunny disposition!”
> 
> “Leave it to us to turn ‘a promise with death’ into a comedy.”
> 
> L: “Can I put spaces around the first hyphen? It hurts my poor little brain.”  
> S: “C: is doing it.”  
> L: “I can’t speech today.”  
> C: “It’s okay. You just rolled low on performance.”
> 
> S: mutters “I forgot [redacted]”  
> L: “What?”  
> C: “I heard it.”


	4. 3 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing with the character introduced yesterday! 
> 
> 654  
> 1,728

Zachariah looked at the contract in the folder and began to read it aloud. “I, Zachariah H. Bernningten the Fourth,” he sighed deeply at the horror of a name his parents saddled him with and continued to read. “Hereby do promise to dedicate all my music to Death, also named Hades, Pluto, et cetera, to prolong my life and gain a record deal with Kerry Boos Records.”

Zach looked at his unusual contract and looked back at Ren. 

“What does this mean?”

“This means that you are now my problem,” Ren replied snappily. “It means you made a promise to my boss and therefore are now under my domain. It means I now get to deal with a …” she paused as if to censor herself from his young, impressionable ears. “I get to deal with Hades who refuses to use the name I’ve chosen for myself these last fifty years and I will now have to respond to Luci or Sam, depending on what kind of mood he’s in. So thank you so much for promising to Hades.” She looked at him with disdain, there seemed to be an eerie look in her eyes, like fire. “Why couldn’t you have chosen Yama, Anubis, Eshu, or Hel? Never mind, I’m stuck with what I’m stuck with.”

Zach knew for sure his mouth had dropped open during her rant. He came to a slow sweeping realization that he wasn’t sure about anything anymore. He looked down at the contract. 

“How do I sign this?”

“With a pen,” the tone of her voice indicated that this was to be an obvious answer.

“I mean-do I-um-blood?”

“I assume by your stammering you are attempting to ask what kind of ink do you use? It is a modified ink that is located in my special pen here,” she shook a dark marbled pen at him. “The ink is special because of a few key ingredients, one of which includes water from the river Styx. The water imbues Hades’ magic into the contract and therefore connects you directly to him and a priest. There’s a lot more that goes into it but you need to sign above the line where your name is before I can go into any more detail.”

She held out the pen to him. Zach gaped at it for a moment and unsteadily took it into his dominant hand. He studied the pen, the dark marbling was a beautiful and unsettling blue with a dark charcoal gray. The cap of the pen was outlined with a dark silver-colored metal. 

The pen cap came away easily from the pen. He held the pen in his hand. The pen kept jumping around in the air. Zach attempted to touch the pen to the paper. Once, twice, thrice. The fourth time he had marked the line slightly with the pen. It gave him the power to steady his arm enough to scrawl his signature on his fifth try.

Ren observed Zach with a coolness to her gaze.

“What next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Yeah, this is one of your names…”


	5. 4 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Back with our interdimensional travelers
> 
> 587  
> 2,820

Suddenly, next to the three-headed dog that Frederica was petting, Death materialized, looked at the giant dog and sighed before informing the three adults (and small child) that, now that they had arrived, he would introduce an addendum to their promise. Once they completed the first promise, he wouldn't actively try to kill them anymore, but they would have to do him another favor if they wanted to leave this dimension. “I promise to get you out of this dimension only after you have taught this” - he signalled the three-headed dog - “how to act like a proper guard dog by the Lava River down there.” He pointed to the base of the mountain where Emilia now noticed there was a stone boat on their side of the lava bank attended by a large wolf which stood on its hind legs and gripped an obsidian oar with its front left paw.

“Are you sure this isn’t Hell?” Samantha questioned Death.

“Of course.” He looked at her blankly. “Hell is much worse.” He paused. “Though, of late this place has been slightly less pleasant.” He extended a shadowed hand to point at the interdimensional travelers. “Which is where you come in. Ask Lupere to take you across the Lava River and for further instructions.” He paused again and glanced at the three-headed dog which was still rolling happily on its back with Frederica climbing on its belly. “You can take Keber with you for now. Just make sure he is trained by the time you are done with your other task - unless you wish to remain here forever.”

And with those words, Death vanished.

“Next time we make a promise with death, we should write a very specific contract.” Greg declared.

Emilia stared at her husband. “You’re planning on there being a next time?”

Ignoring the other two, Samantha put her hot pink buck knife away and walked over to Keber, picked Fred up off of the three-headed dog, and proceeded to give a series of commands to the dog all of which it either ignored or didn’t know.

“Just great.” Samantha groaned after she was done. “He doesn’t even know basic commands.” She turned to Emilia and Greg. “It took me months to get Gobber - that’s Mason’s dog in our dimension - to learn impulse control so he wouldn’t attack people on sight… most of the time anyway. And Gobber had already learned how to sit, come, and stay, though he was bad at ‘stay.’”

“So in other words, this isn’t going to be a day trip.” Greg clarified.

Emilia picked up the duffel bag and started walking down the mountain. “Did we ever expect this to be a short trip?” She questioned as the others followed (even Keber). “We did promise to clean up a mess in this dimension. And the person we’re working for is Death. I doubt very much the mess is just a puddle or some graffiti.”

“True.” Samantha replied. “But we can only do so much to train Keber while we’re moving about the dimension. If he’s supposed to be a guard dog, he’ll need to be taught what territory he has to protect.”

“Can we keep him?” Fred questioned, unhelpfully adding yet another problem into their adventure.

“No, sweetie.” Greg told his daughter. “Keber belongs to this dimension, so we can’t keep him.”

Emilia groaned internally as she realized that Frederica would become more and more attached to Keber the longer they were together - which was shaping up to be quite a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L: and S: berate C: for the stone boat and obsidian oar. C: silently takes the abuse and refrains from stating that Lupere made a promise with death to get the materials blessed so they could function because there were no other materials available in this dimension. C: also types this long comment. L adds to this comment that this means she and S were right - it had to be magic for it to work - and that this was not established in the text, so technically, she has no excuse. C: refrains from commenting further.


	6. 5 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new story for day five thanks to Laicolasse!
> 
> 554  
> 3,374

These were the times Death didn’t like his job. A woman who had just given birth was in a corner wrapping herself around her baby to try and protect her from harm. The building was on fire and had begun to collapse. The woman was dying, and Death had to take her away from her child. They knelt in front of the woman and placed a hand on her head, promising to honor her dying wish.

“Promise me that my baby will be cared for,” the woman’s tears streamed down her cheeks in rivers, mixing with the blood from her wounds, “and that she won’t die h-” 

Her eyes fell shut and her breathing stopped as her soul left her body. 

It took Death a moment to realize what had just happened. They had promised to honor her dying wish, and if they promised something they had to do it. She died before finishing what she was going to say, but Death had to honor the wish as it was stated. 

Death was going to be in so much trouble.

Finding someone to take care of the baby was the first problem. The entire town had been burnt to the ground by an invading army and the few people who did survive were in no position to care for a child, especially a newborn. The invaders also were not suitable candidates, and the next town was quite far away.

This left only one possibility: Death would have to care for the baby.

And Death had to return to the netherrealm…

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time a living mortal - was the kid even mortal anymore? - found its way into the netherrealm, but there would definitely be an uproar when Death _willingly_ brought a _living_ being into the netherrealm. Death grumbled and cursed themself for making a promise before hearing the wish. They should never agree to things before knowing what they are agreeing to. Especially not on inspection day.

At any rate, Death had to return to the netherrealm, and the baby had to come with them, so to the netherrealm they went, hoping that Mordae would somehow not notice the baby during inspection. 

***

Viva laughed harder than she had ever laughed before, harder even than when Yuhl did one of her comedy acts. Never in a million years would she have expected Dormu to ask her, the goddess of life, to help him, the god of death, to keep someone _alive_. Not the god who had been at odds with her for eons, not the god who made a point of killing at least one person for every person she helped breathe life into, not the god who actively sought out and encouraged his son Sares, god of war, to wreak havoc and insight rebellions for the sake of raising the death toll. Yet here he was, promising to do her a favor if she would use her power to save a life.

***

Mordae noticed. Mordae definitely noticed. And when Mordae noticed, Mordae got angry. When Mordae was angry, the netherrealm held its breath, hoping to escape Mordae’s gaze and appear as innocuous as possible. The only sound that could be heard was the wailing of a hungry baby and the vein popping on the side of Mordae’s head.

Death was doomed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I freaked out for a moment because I saw no text after the fourth… I was on the comments doc.”


	7. 10 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back with Zach and L. Ren Star
> 
> 694   
> 4,068

"I promise you, Hades, you will feel my wrath if you don't get here right now!" Ren screamed into the phone before viciously slamming it down into the holder. 

Zach shrank back in his seat in terror. Ren's eyes did _something_ when she was angry. 

There were literal flames dancing in her irises. Zach meeped quietly, causing Ren to chuckle. 

"It's not you I'm mad at sweetie," she cooed at him, causing more fear to permeate through Zach's body. "I'm angry at one of the clauses Hades tried to sneak into your recording contract."

Zach was confused. "Didn't I al-"

"No."

"Oh. What did I sign then?"

"It was the promissory note for your soul. That is the first contract you sign, then you get the record deal contract. Since you made a deal with Hades, I am now your manager; therefore I control what kind of deal you get. I am one of the only managers that will actually put up with Hades' bullshit. Hades," she spat out the name, "gets no say in how I promote you or what kind of sound you will have."

Zach just nodded his head, hoping to leave this room alive and whole. 

A sound came from the corner behind Zach's right shoulder. Zach turned and was shocked by what he saw.

*** 

"He's doing it again. Make him stooop," she whined to her mother.

"Sit," the older woman commanded.

"No," the middle one barked back. 

He bounded around the girl, circling her and pouncing. Every time he pounced all three heads licked an uncovered piece of skin. He accidentally licked a piece of her clothing once. The head that licked it spent the next ten minutes whining and trying to get the taste off by licking a paw. It didn't work very well because the other two heads were trying to use the paw to pounce on her again. 

The mother sighed and told her daughter that she shouldn't have promised to dog-sit if she wasn't capable of taking care of the dog.

"It has three heads and is almost my height. I didn't know that my friend's puppy had three heads! And could talk!"

"Where did she get the dog anyhow?"

"She said something about her aunt promising death to someone or something. I wasn't sure. I'd stopped listening at that point because three-headed puppy!"

"Just take care of the dog. With this experience, maybe you won't begging to get one," the mother said, leaving her daughter to deal with the pouncing puppy.

*** 

There had been a statue in that corner. It was now moving with shimmering silver hair. Zach's mouth dropped open. 

'This was definitely going to be something that Zach would have to watch out for in the future,' Ren noted down on their steno pad. Ren enjoyed playing with the newbies a bit, but they did not appreciate a death god attempting to usurp their job. Then again, they didn't appreciate anyone trying to get power over them. There was a reason they left heaven after all. 

"What?" the statue barked out in a high-pitched voice. 

Ren giggled on the inside about the spell they purposefully put on the statue to randomize the voice output. Hades sounded like one of the chipmunks!

They straightened up from their chair and gave the statue a glare. 

"What do you call clause six, subsection f, subsection xi.?" They began, slowly raising their voice as they continued their questioning. "What gives you the right to dictate my client's sound? What gives you the audacity to step on my managerial powers and in my client's creative control? Hmm?"

Ren smirked internally when the statue seemingly shrunk back. Ren knew too much and had been around too long for Hades to just brush off any questioning from them. 

Ren took a quick glance at their client. Zach looked at the two of them in awe. 'He needs to be caught up to date with how we do things around here.' They made a second note on their steno pad regarding Zach. 

Ren's checking on Zach caught the statue's attention.

"So this is my newest soul," the statue announced in a squeak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way I love the promise you started with on the 10th.”
> 
> “By the way, I purposefully used ‘promissory note’ because it makes me think of student loans which feel like you’re signing your soul away.”
> 
> “I actually had to go back and check if that was referencing a rule.”  
> “It was not. I made sure of that.”


	8. 11 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today began with a nightmare. It introduces a character that never appears again. Also, the continuing adventures of Zach and the interdimensional travelers.
> 
> 1,780  
> 5,848

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This began because of a nightmare. I wrote part of it while half-asleep at crazy early in the morning. I fleshed it out over twelve hours later. This story was blacked.

"I promise you will have a world that you control."

She had been studying at a special camp for several weeks now. She got along well with her fellow housemates. One of the biggest perks from this camp was the ability to publish a peer-reviewed scientific paper that you wrote. The camp was dedicated to you being able to prove the paper you publish through experimentation. The counselors were all proven scientists and either resented their young charges or loved their enthusiasm.

Leann had been acting off lately. She would begin to speak but then cut herself off for no reason. Everyone at camp thought Leann was losing her mind.

She has been trying to prove that linear time is fictional or just a concept that the human mind came up with. Leann had been learning how for her time was a repeated series of deja vu. She was repeating days. She was repeating moments. None of these observations were admissible to prove her paper. 

There was a formal dance at the end of camp. No one was notified about bringing formal occasion clothes. The counselors took all the campers shopping. It was the fault of the camp to not give the directive about the new clothing requirement, the camp was obligated to pay for all the campers' new formalwear. This did go to some of the more enterprising campers' heads. 

'Tell it like it was Leann,' a voice sneaks slowly through her recollection. 'They were suck-ups and snitches, trying to get the best lab times while being overwhelmed with what they could actually accomplish in a lab.'

Fine, this new power went to the campers who stuck like glue to the counselors. Leann was more worried about being able to prove the physics behind her theory of nonlinear time and the psychology behind why linear time is a construct of the human mind. A few of her friends that she made at camp drug her out of the labs on occasion to hang out and have many dance parties. Two of them were in her shopping group for the formal dress. 

The Terror Twins, as they were affectionately named by all of their camp friends, were the ones that ensured that all of their friends ate and had mental health time away from the labs. They picked out eight or so dresses for Leann and shooed her into the dressing room. 

Leann tried on every single dress. Every dress seemed to contain all the colors for spring. She wasn't sure that was formalwear appropriate and she wasn't sure she looked good in all of those pastel colors. 

"Twins! Why do you keep bringing me dresses that are all the colors of spring? It's too much!"

One of the twins responded. "I only gave you blue dresses."

"I only gave you two dresses that weren't black," the other called out from the opposite side. 

Leann did a double-take at the dresses. None of them were a pastel color. She leaned her head against the wall of the dressing room and sighed. She scrunched her eyes closed and ran her hand through her short blonde hair. After a few moments of deep breathing exercises the twins magically dropped on her desk two weeks ago, she opened her eyes again and saw nothing but pastel dresses. She sighed and chose the one that flattered her shape the best. 

She walked out of the dressing room holding the dress she chose. She determinedly walked to the registers, refusing to look at the colors of her dress. 

The cashier looked at her and the dress. The cashier's mouth dropped open. 

"We don't have those colors. Not even in clearance. It-it's summer?"

Leann sighed, "Just try to ring it up."

The cashier looked at Leann like she was crazy. Leann was getting tired of that look. 

The cashier took the tag and rang up the dress. It was on sale. As the cashier busied herself with the customary things she was required to do, the price of the dress kept decreasing. Leann noted this and made a mental note to report herself to one of her friends in the psych department for hallucinations. Leann needed some tests done and fast. The twins didn't count as friends in the psych department. They were real friends, not science friends.

Time passed at camp. Leann still had difficulties with proving her theories. Her psych friend had also ruled out any hallucinations that Leann thought she was having. Overall, the two weeks before the formal dance were long and grueling. 

She wore the dress that she bought for under twenty dollars and was all the colors of spring. Leann was complimented multiple times about her dress. She didn't dare mention her research to the important people at this dance. The dance was probably the most memorable part of her camp experience. Probably because it was her last memory of a good time.

Leann was awoken from an amazing dream abruptly. 

"Why are you shaking me awake so early?" Leann looked over at the cabin clock. It was almost six in the morning. 

"Who are you?" came the demanding retort.

Leann froze. 'Please don't let this be another hallucination. Please, please,' she pleaded internally to a god she wasn't very sure about. 

"What do you mean who am I? I'm Leann. I've been sleeping in this bunk in this cabin for the last two months. Heck, I've helped you, you, and you with your experiment set-ups. And I've corrected your math at least three times!" she exclaimed at her cabin mates, gesturing at each one. 

"Oh yeah? Then what am I doing?" her tallest cabin mate challenged Leann.

"You are recreating at least three of Tesla's experiments even though you know that a boy from cabin six is doing the exact same thing, but better," Leann replied, ending with a heavy sigh. She looked up at her cabin mates again. "I'm not going to tell you all of your experiments because a couple of you swore me to secrecy. I take secrecy vows seriously."

The other girls looked at each other. Their faces were filled with disbelief. They began peppering her with questions about other campers. She mentioned everyone that she was on friendly terms with.

"I only have my phone for pictures. I need to check it anyway. I'm sure my brother is worried about me."

Leann unlocked her phone. and showed the background picture out for the others to see. They were all visibly surprised that it showed the five of them during a bonfire eating s'mores. 

They left Leann to debate her existence. Leann texted her brother. He didn't respond back.

One of the girls came back into the cabin a few hours later. Her noisy entrance woke Leann from her restless sleep.

"I've asked the people you say you know around the camp. None of them know you or your experiments. They looked at me like I was crazy," she paused in a pregnant moment of silence. "Then I asked them to look at their camera rolls. You are in their pictures and their posts. You're even tagged in them!" She collapsed heavily on the edge of Leann's bed. "How did you disappear from existence?"

Leann was stunned. 'I was taken from everyone's memory, but I still exist in their phones. Is this the proof I need?'

Leann uses her cabin mates and her science friends as evidence that time is a construct of the human brain. Or she begins to. They all begin remembering moments that they had with her. It is a slow process, but as time moves on, so too do their memories return. 

But many of their memories are wrong or extremely disjointed. 

They attribute many things to her that never actually happened for Leann. Leann becomes more and more afraid.

It comes out. A rival of Leann's began a campaign against her. All of Leann's cabin mates and science friends believed the rival. The twins didn't. But the twins were sent home early. Leann didn't know why. They haven't been in touch. 

The head of the camp called what happened to Leann a prank gone wrong. Leann knows he is lying for someone. How? Because he claims that Leann was one of the instigators of the prank. 

She was sentenced to kitchen duty for the rest of camp. Luckily, Leann knew how to cook and so could mitigate any of her cooking partner's errors in the kitchen. Her cooking partner swore that he talked to her before they were sentenced to the kitchen. 

Leann sighed. 'Another conversation that didn't happen. Again.'

Someone laughed darkly in Leann's head. She could barely hear what the voice spoke, but it said something about the best promise.

*** 

Zach squirmed in his seat. 'This was Hades? What is up with his voice?'

Ren answered for him. He mentally thanked her. 

"Yes, this is Zach. But you won't be fulfilling your terms of the promise if you don't send me up a new contract without those previous stipulations. You know I won't let him sign a record contract that is not in his best interests. YOU do not dictate his music. YOU do not dictate where he can tour." She paused and glared at the statue again. "Ka-peesh?"

The statue seemed to hunch over in defeat. "I'll send it up later."

"Before lunch," she barked at it. 

The statue stilled as Zach was watching it. "What just happened?"

***  
Greg, Em, Samantha, and Fred reached the Lava River crossing with Keber in tow and were greeted by an incredibly formal bow from the Lupere. The wolf who, upon closer inspection, seemed to be slightly anthropomorphic since he had hands (though they ended with claw-like points rather than fingertips), bowed at a perfect forty-five degree angle.

“You must be the distinguished guests that Death informed me would be coming to resolve our issue.” Lupere spoke in a deep baritone voice with a hint of a growl lacing his words. Still, the way he held himself, Greg kept expecting to blink and realize the wolf was dressed in a butler’s uniform rather than clad in nothing but the fur he was born with.

“Um, yeah, I guess we are.” Samantha replied for the group.

The wolf waved a clawed hand toward the stone boat. “Then step right this way please.” Lupere bowed again as the interdimensional travelers cautiously boarded the stone boat which was surprisingly cool to the touch despite floating on a river of lava. Once they were all aboard, he glanced up at Keber who sat pathetically whining with all three heads on the river bank. “Too big.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Did you just give my camera a gender?”  
> Puzzled, “But I don’t know how to say that without assigning it a gender?”
> 
> “This is nonlinear.”
> 
> /twins dissolve into laughter because they know that my dream influenced them into the Terror Twins/
> 
> /one twin almost chokes on her food from laughing so hard at the dress incident/
> 
> “I think you broke the twins.”
> 
> “Can we pause for a moment so I can drink my milk without it spewing out of my nose?”  
> /pause/  
> “Granted.”
> 
> /Ends nightmare story/  
> “That’s terrifying.”


	9. 12 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are still with our interdimensional travelers.
> 
> 1,820  
> 7,668

“Okay, I will do something about it.” Death stated, appearing at the edge of the lava river. “Here’s the deal.” He looked at Keber. “You will learn to be a proper guard dog and assist these people,” he indicated the interdimensional travelers, “with their quest, and in exchange I promise to give you a special collar that will make you small enough to travel with them.”

Keber barked happily.

Death groaned but did as he promised and waved his scythe in the air, causing a large collar to appear in the air the likes of which Greg had never seen before and doubted he would ever see again. It was a three-hooped collar with little chain links between the hoops (to accommodate Keber’s three heads), shimmering black in color, and seemingly made of some kind of leather. The collar floated toward Keber and snapped into place around the dog’s three necks. In the next moment, there was a puff of red-black shadow and a yelp-bark. When the shadow cleared, Keber was a fraction of his former size. Rather than the lumbering giant that stood at least twice as tall as Greg, Keber was now about the size of a siberian husky.

Fred who was currently riding piggyback on Greg’s shoulders laughed happily, echoed by Keber’s joyful barking as he bounded into the stone boat followed much more gracefully by Lupere who began rowing them across the lava river as Death once again vanished.

“That must be his favorite trick.” Samantha commented to no one in particular.

“So,” Em took up her usual job as ambassador of the interdimensional travelers (Greg made a mental note to make her a formal certificate as a gag gift for April Fool’s Day), “about this issue we are supposed to resolve: what exactly is it?”

Lupere froze and looked at the interdimensional travelers in shock. This, of course, meant the boat also came to a halt before beginning to slowly drift down the Lava River. Shaking his head as if to clear out something that wedged itself in unwelcomed, Lupere regained his former austere demeanor and began paddling again as he stated, “You are much more gracious than I had first imagines, Honored Guests, if you have come without knowing the nature of your task.”

“We’re not going to like this, are we?” Greg questioned, setting the struggling Fred down on the bottom of the boat so she could pet Keber.

Lupere regarded Greg for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then the wolf looked away across the river. “No, it is unlikely anyone would like the current state of things in this world. This is why we need outside help.”

When Lupere was silent for a whole minute, Em spoke up again. “So, the actual issue is?”

“Ah, yes, forgive me.” Lupere responded, pausing in his rowing long enough to bow in apology. “For you to fully understand the present issue, I must tell you the tale of what came before.”

“Can we get the CliffsNotes version?” Samantha asked.

Lupere cocked his head. “I am not sure what you mean.”

“The version you’d tell if someone were about to push you off a cliff.” Samantha explained.

“That’s not how they got that name.” Em corrected. “They were - you know what, nevermind.”

Lupere chuckled, though it sounded more like a growl. “I see. I will endeavor to keep the tale short.”

Greg groaned inwardly. Whenever someone said they would try to ‘keep it short,’ it usually meant the story was going to be very, very long. 

“To begin at the beginning,” Lupere growled out as Greg internally facepalmed, “this world is called Gehen.”

“I called it.” Samantha stated sourly. “That is so totally a rip-off of ‘gehenna’ which is a name for Hell. This is Hell.”

“No,” Lupere replied absentmindedly, “Hell is in another realm which is, usually, far worse than Gehen.”

Samantha muttered something under her breath about how she was certain the creator of Gehen was trying to mess with her - yes, Samantha specifically - by making so many obvious references.

Ignoring the grumbling Samantha, Lupere resumed his tale. “Gehen was created many eons ago out of nothingness at the same time as Pardis - that is the Upper Realm.” Here Lupere paused and pointed to the onyx sky with its three red moons. “Pardis resides there above the Dark Layer which is our sky. By the way, those three red orbs are Nether, Tartaran, and Ahbis. Though the red light they emit provides illumination for Gehen, we do not appreciate that light for what it represents. Nether, Tartaran, and Ahbis are lands of the Dark Layer in which reside three greatest punishments. I will not tell you what they are, for you do not need to know.” Lupere fell silent for a moment. “I pray you will never have need to know.”

Greg wanted to tell Lupere to stop setting them up for bad things. From personal experience, whenever someone said ‘it can’t get worse’ or ‘we won’t have to go there’ or anything similar, it meant they would inevitably face a much worse situation than before - almost like they were characters in a novel with an author who liked to torment their protagonists. Greg just hoped this wasn’t a tragedy.

At any rate, Lupere collected himself and resumed his tale. “Gehen and Pardis were created as opposites of each other - a balance between the upper and lower realms. Where Gehen is dark and devoid of foliage, Pardis is filled with light and all manner of flora. Thus the upper and lower realms were divided and the inhabitants of the two realms were those most suited to their varied environments.

“For many an age, the upper and lower realms balanced each other. There have been some disputes between realms over the years, and there have been intra-realm battles as well; however, the overall state of the realms has remained one of relative peace… Until that day.

“About a thousand years ago the one who created Gehen and Pardis fell to a great calamity. In that moment, our realms were thrown into chaos. That which should have supported their existence was no more, and so the realms began to die. Certainly, this would have meant the end for all the inhabitants of both realms as we had nowhere else to go.

“And so there was an alliance: the Treaty of Realms. Lower and Upper peoples gathered together to find a way to give our world a way to continue existing in the absence of sustenance. What was found was beyond anyone’s imagination. We could continue to exist by borrowing the life-force of other worlds. But doing so was not a simple task.

“Ultimately, a task force was formed to reach out to other worlds and petition for a portion of the life-force which sustained them. The result was the Contract of Afterworld. Death - whom you have met - and a few others of similar status - were facing a problem of what to do with those who died in their realms since they had too little space for the expanding peoples of their worlds, and so it was settled that the Upper and Lower Realms would accept a portion of the dead of other worlds in exchange for receiving that which would sustain our world.

“And so we come at last to the cause of the current issues in Gehen. For a thousand years now, we have been taking in about a hundred dead a year all of whom are given a residence and a job in Gehen which is in accord with the judgement passed on them by their previous world. Those who do not comply with their placement are sent to Nether, Tataran, or Ahbis after being tried by the Council of Afterworlds (made up of entities like Death - he is the current chairman by the way). After a thousand years, we have a population of just under 100,000 Dead (due to those who have been sent to the Dark Layer) and just over 200,000 Lower Realmers as our population decreased significantly when the creator of the Realms ceased to exist.

“As they make up a third of our population, the Dead are beginning to rebel against the governance by Lower Realmers which was imposed upon them by the Council of Afterworlds. The result is a chaos which the Council cannot control because they cannot simply send 100,000 beings to the Dark Layer. Thus, they have called upon outside aid.” Lupere looked intently at the interdimensional travelers. “That, Honored Guests, is why you are here.”

***

Death was exhausted. The only thing that saved Death from being sent to the punishment chamber was the fact that if he was sent there, he would be unable to keep his promise, and Mordae was smart enough to know that would cause more problems than it was worth no matter how angry he was. 

Death felt a little bad about the baby essentially functioning as his safety shield during the lecture Mordae gave him (after sending one of the lesser demons in the netherworld to track down something to feed the baby), but there was little he could do about that at the moment. If he didn’t keep the baby in plain view of Mordae… Death didn’t want to think about what would happen to him between Mordae’s wrath and the failure to uphold his promise that would lead to. 

At any rate, dealing with Mordae’s anger was nothing compared to taking care of a newborn. Death was completely out of his element. It was a _living_ baby afterall. Life was the exact opposite of Death’s job description, and, unlike Luciella, he had not been reassigned to the netherrealm after holding a position in the etherrealm with business trips in the medialrealm.

Actually, Death had been hoping that Luciella could help him take care of the baby since she at least had some experience, but it seems she was assigned to collect the souls of the dead in a part of the medialrealm with a serious ongoing trench war, so she wouldn’t be back in the netherrealm for quite a while. In the meantime, Death would have to figure things out on his own. Mordae had forbidden him from leaving the netherrealm for the time being, so he couldn’t put in a request for a visit to the medialrealm or the etherrealm, and he had been strictly warned against interfering with anyone else’s work while handling his “absolutely, insanely, ridiculously, and traumatically idiotic promise” as Mordae termed it.

Really, raising a baby would be hard enough for Death if he was at least given leave to take it to the medialrealm, but raising a _living_ baby in the netherrealm… this was not going to be easy. At least Gravor was willing to share the nethermilk his Krinshawk produced so the baby would have something to eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S: “Is this from this?”  
> C: “I didn’t see it.”  
> S: “Oh, I must have blacked it…”
> 
> Disdainful comment about obsidian oar.
> 
> “The comment about the boat being cold should have indicated-”  
> “That something was wrong?”  
> “No, magic.”
> 
> “He is exceedingly formal.”
> 
> /laughing loudly about Samantha’s naming system for Cliffsnotes/
> 
> Internally, S: Samantha’s self-centeredness is hilarious and disturbing all at once.
> 
> “What is this fourth wall break you speak of. You’re stealing my job again.”
> 
> Internally, S: Greg is being very obvious about their past. And another fourth wall break.
> 
> “I am now picturing him saying that very dramatically, which is probably out of character.”  
> “He is a butler Polonius so…”
> 
> “I needed another term. I had a council and a task force.”  
> “Round stump.”  
> /laughter/
> 
> “I got my naming advice from her. Write something that sounds good.”


	10. 26 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another short story before delving into Zach's story.
> 
> 339   
> 8,007

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments made while writing this fic:  
> 15 January 2021:"Is it death ex machina instead of deus ex machina? No, to be more accurate its mort ex machina" - followed by discussion of the origin of the phrase "deus ex machina"  
> 26 January 2021: S: I am the nightmare writer.  
> L: I am the wife killer.  
> C: What am I?  
> L: The it sounds good writer.  
> C: Okay!  
> /General laughter/

¨You will be promised to death for fame and fortune.¨

¨Deal.¨ His reply boomed throughout the room. He didn't know the guy he was making this deal with, but he was desperate for the attention fame would get him.

The other being´s grin did not deter him at all.

The being held out a bracelet. ¨Put this on. This is to be your engagement band. You are to be faithful to your wife, the band will punish you if you are not.¨

The man put the band on his left wrist, it would not detract anything for him to have a signature bracelet.

Years later, he would realize how wonderful and terrible his father-in-law was for making him wear the bracelet. The bracelet didn't show up in pictures or video unless he willed for it to do so. Some movies that he was in would have a flash of the bracelet appear, when he was thinking about his wife or someone hit on him. The bracelet marked him romantically off limits. He enjoyed that. He wasn't particularly fussed with romantic attention. He wanted fame not romance with someone who only knew him for his name and the attention it brought.

***

Zach cringed in his seat because of the saccharine-sweet smile on Ren's face. He just knew that he would not like her explanation.

"I just put that uppity death god in his place is all," she smirked at Zach. 

A loud ding erupted from Ren's computer. 

"That should be the amended contract now. Why don't we go to lunch and review it before you sign it?" She stood as she asked the question, her printer whirring in the background.

Zach nodded his head affirmatively and shakily got up.

"I need a verbal answer Zach," her tone was mild but rebuking all the same.

"Yes. Let's go to lunch."

Ren gathered the contract and they headed out of her office and away from the statue that Zach swears was eyeing him as they left the room.


	11. 27 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 27th day of January, the 10th day of actual writing (oops.)
> 
> The interdimensional travelers are back...and making another promise.
> 
> 318  
> 8,325

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L: I want to know!

By the time Lupere had finished recounting the history of Gehen, the stone boat had reached the far shore of the Lava River and Death had reappeared and opened his mouth a few times as if he wanted to say something - particularly around the time when Lupere said there would hopefully be no reason to go to the orbs of the Dark Layer. When Lupere finally concluded his far from short story, Death finally got to say what was on his mind. “I promise that you will not have to go to the Dark Layer so long as you keep this doll.” And so saying he passed a Death Doll (what else would you call a doll that looked very much like Death himself complete with black robes and scythe?) to Fred.

Fred, ever the extraordinary child - in that she is so far ‘beyond or out of the common order or rule’ that most people would call her unordinary - squealed with delight where many children her age might have withdrawn screaming either from the doll or Death himself. She was, in fact, so delighted by the doll that she momentarily forgot to pet Keber - that is until he began barking in protest and she resumed petting him with one hand while holding the Death Doll with the other.

Emilia wasn’t sure what to be more surprised by: the delight her five-year-old daughter found in three-headed monster dogs and grim reapers (model or real), or the fond smile she could have sworn she saw beneath Death’s dark hood that very muchly resembled the smile of a grandparent after his grandchild accepted a gift.

“If I may ask,” Samantha spoke up, interrupting Emilia’s confused surprise, “why did you choose scientists to solve a politician’s problem?”

Death looked Samantha square in the eyes and replied. “No politicians are currently on the ‘approved for interdimensional travel’ list.”

“There’s a list?!” Samantha guffawed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I love that Scythe is capitalized.”  
> “I don’t know why that is,” laughing.
> 
> “Are you setting ______up?”  
> “Maybe…”
> 
> “That’s the list!”  
> /laughter/


	12. 29 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two new characters and Death is dealing with his new charge...
> 
> 1,118  
> 9,443

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> L: I had an idea when I started this paragraph... this wasn't my idea.

Rhian had been surprised by a lot of things in life. Meeting a colorblind electrician, working as a personal servant for the king and queen of a small, relatively unheard of country on their visit to the States because the queen had a vision that the first person she saw wearing striped socks after getting off the plane would bring good fortune to her life and the kind thought people with short stature and bright emerald eyes were an omen of good health and longevity, dancing with a dog wearing a tomato costume, and actually managing to pay of the student loans from college within a year of graduating were among some of the more surprising events Rhian remembered. However, learning that all of that was because Rhian had made a promise with Donn, the god of death, some seven-hundred years ago to go to his house in the afterlife if Donn could make something more incredible than Rhian had ever experienced before occur during Rhian’s life was more surprising than any of those events. 

***

Death came to a sudden and terrifying realization on his first away mission when his stay-in-the-netherrealm order was lifted early 

Because he couldn’t interfere with others’ work, Death had to take the baby with him to the medialrealm to collect the soul he was assigned. It turned out there was a mixup on the paperwork and someone in the filing department missed typing a zero so “10 years” turned into “1” year remaining instead, so the soul wasn’t actually ready for collection, but Death technically still had to wait in the medialrealm for the corrected paperwork to arrive and confirm the error before closing the case. 

Since Death had only been assigned the one case as a form of consideration for the unprecedented netherrealm workplace complication of having a child to care for, Death didn’t have any work to take up the time, so he decided to take the baby to observe other babies as this may end up being a rare opportunity for the baby to interact with other mortals in a semi-normal manner at least for quite some time. It was rare, afterall, for Death to get time in the medialrealm without an active task, and since Death was officially recognized as the baby’s guardian, the baby had to live with Death.

Death couldn’t help but feel guilty about that. He knew he was a clumsy caretaker. Life was so far out of his job-scope that he didn’t understand it well. Death knew death, the final moments, the wishes, the regrets… He felt them, knew them, was comfortable with them. 

The baby didn’t have wishes, regrets. It had emotions Death didn’t understand, couldn’t name. It was forming, growing, changing. The baby would laugh and smile one second, then cry and reach out for something the next, but Death didn’t know what. Death knew living beings needed food and had bodily processes that Death didn’t, but he didn’t know how to tell which was the problem when the baby cried. The crying… it hurt, made Death feel inadequate. Reminded him that he still hadn’t managed to earn a name after all this time… 

At any rate, it had been when Death arrived at a park with the baby that he overheard the mothers, fathers, other relations and relations who cared for babies talking to them and calling their names. That was when the realization came.

Death worked in the netherrealm and wasn’t technically living. He had to earn a name to be granted one. Until then, he was called by his job. However, the baby was _living_ and belonged to the medialrealm. The _living_ don’t earn names. They are gifted with them by their caretakers. Death was inept, but he should still have at least realized sooner that all he was calling the baby was baby. The baby needed a name. And it was now Death’s job to give it one.

That was why Death started looking through old cases when he and the baby went back to the netherrealm after the corrected paperwork came through. The cases all had names. He remembered them all, remembered their faces, their wishes, their regrets. Their names were part of them, sometimes a good part, sometimes not, but always part. Looking through the cases, Death hoped, would help him think of a name for the baby, but those names didn’t belong to the baby. They belonged to others. They had stories and lives of their own.

Death started asking fellow netherrealm residents what they knew about naming, but nothing really helped. They just told him what he already knew. 

It was about a week later when Hadeusi came to inspect the southern quarter and spotted the baby that Death felt something… strange. It happened when Hadeusi raised an eyebrow and got the expression on his face that said something was out of place while he looked at the baby. Death didn’t have wishes. It wasn’t in his nature, yet in that moment, he wished he could take that look off Hadeusi’s face, like he needed to convince Hadeusi that he was wrong, more wrong than the paperwork mixup that almost shortened a man’s life by nine years due to a type had been. She belonged here. She was important.

Those were not thoughts that Death had before, and he wasn’t sure how to interpret them. The baby was his responsibility. She was the product of his own mistake. But somehow thinking like that made him angry. It didn’t make sense. 

But he did think of something. She smiled for him even though he was clumsy with her. She cried when others tried to hold her, but cooed when he did. She did that even when he didn’t know how to properly take care of her or give him a name. And he felt something when she did. It was vague, hard to define, but somehow, he remembered something like that in the past, a long time in the past. One of his first cases… 

She was a young woman who struggled with a terminal illness. Death had been assigned to watch her during a period when the illness became so bad her life expectancy fluctuated between 1 year and 1 minute rapidly. Even the netherrealm special case investigators were not sure when her time would come. But she always smiled when he came. It was strange. The only wish Death had felt from her was to spend time with him. It made him have that strange feeling…

Her name…

Zelina.

The baby cooed when Death said it out loud. He tried saying it again, and she cooed again.

For some reason, Death felt like smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “So she’s having all this happen to her because of a promise her soul made?”
> 
> “Maybe we should add her to their story…”  
> “NOOOOO!”
> 
> /laughter/
> 
> “Death is becoming a parent.”


	13. 31 January 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All comments were made on the 30th.:-)  
> A new unnamed character and a small ending to Zach's story.
> 
> Last day of writing!
> 
> 714  
> 10,157

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C: Hey, right down that we ------ so that we remember for March!  
> Long Pause during which L and S look at each other and S laughs nervously  
> L: But we're not allowed to do that, though.  
> Nothing was writing down.
> 
> C: I'm going to -------- at the start of February.  
> S: Point of order: it is still January. You cannot talk about February yet.  
> C: But it's AD.  
> S: We outlawed that already.  
> L: Yeah, you can't talk about it. You can't write about it. And you're not supposed to think about it, but we can't enforce that one.  
> C: Point of order: I was making a joke because they're in AD.  
> general laughter with sighs and groans
> 
> All comments today were C's fault.  
> S: Hey, you aren't allowed to read this! It's not your turn.  
> C: Sorry.  
> L: Thank you (to S)  
> C: I was only trying to read the sentence.  
> L: But it's not your turn.  
> C: But she might not redact it.  
> L: And you might not get the story back to be able to read it. S can end the story so you wouldn't be able to read it. If it was the second of the month it wouldn't be as big of a deal.  
> C: Oh, right. The second of the month isn't a guarantee either.  
> (general talk about writing enthusiasm)  
> S: We are still excited about writing on the second. We tend to drop off around the fourth.

“I promise to reap a soul for every life you save.”

This promise was never told to the person it was aimed at. That was probably a good thing because then the person it was aimed at wouldn’t have settled for being merely a serial killer. They would have annihilated their town and then the next two beyond. 

Death only had to reap three souls due to this promise. The third was when the killer killed themselves. 

***

Ren enjoyed having lunch with their charges. It got them away from their office and into a more sociable atmosphere. They could see that Zach was still a nervous wreck but he had calmed down some. 

Lunch was enjoyable. Ren did not envy theirself the headache that was to come from reading Hades’ amended contract. But they and Zach went through the contract diligently. Zach asked some surprisingly insightful questions. Maybe the questions weren’t surprisingly insightful but rather an actual show of due diligence and intelligence that Zach had yet to show while in their office. 

“So do I sign now?” Zach asked them, bouncing slightly in his seat.

“No, all contracts are signed in my office,” Ren lowered their voice, “Your patron must watch the signing of the contract for it to be truly valid and binding for the record company.”

Zach deflated and looked mournfully at his dessert.

“Finish your dessert, Zach,” Ren chuckled, “You’ll sign when we get back. There is no rush.”

“There is too a rush!” A voice hissed in her ear. 

Ren swatted at the offending ear. They were rewarded with a small smack sound and high pitched screaming that no one else heard in the restaurant. They smiled a slow, vicious smile full of teeth. Zach was not looking at them and did not realize how terrifying his new manager really was. Then again, Zach hadn’t exactly connected all the dots regarding who they were. There was a _reason_ death gods were afraid of Ren. Ren defied their progenitor many millennia ago. No one defies a progenitor and survives. Ren did. 

Zach mumbled into his empty dessert plate, breaking Ren’s train of thought. “Can we go now?”

Ren changed their smile to a nice one. They never intentionally terrified their clients on the first day. 

They left the restaurant with Ren dropping money on the table and gesturing for Zach to follow them. Zach leaped out of his seat and powerwalked to the door. 

Zach’s speed ensured that they arrived back into their office quite quickly. 

Ren settled into their chair, delaying the signing and watching Zach get more anxious by the second. Ren stifled an internal giggle. They summoned Hades to the statue once more and pulled out a lethal looking pen.

Zach paled at the sight of the pen. “Wh-what’s th-that f-f-for?”

Ren shot him a look that they knew was silently asking him if he was an idiot. He gulped and paled further. It was remarkable how pale humans could get when dealing with death. 

“This is a pen. You use it to sign contracts, like the one you have been bouncing to sign for the last twenty minutes. It takes a little bit of blood and then you autograph on the designated line.”

“Blood?”

A high helium-like voice answered. “Blood is life therefore you need to sacrifice blood to sign god-bound contracts with the record company.”

Zach nodded, but Ren continued. “It’s a little more complicated than that, but essentially Hades is correct. Will you sign?”

Zach reached to the outstretched pen in Ren’s hand. Before he could grip it, they stabbed the back of his hand and released the pen to him. 

Zach cursed when they stabbed him. He grasped ahold of the pen, like nothing else mattered but the pen and signing. 

Ren looked suspiciously at Hades. He seemed too gleeful at getting this kid to sign a contract. 

The contract glowed on their desk. It was too late. Zach signed and Ren could do very little to stave off any negative consequences the contract held. 

Ren sighed. ‘Why do mortals like to make deals with death?’ They thought. ‘I would much rather do nothing than interfere with death deals to make them more palatable to mortals. Oh well. At least I have a talented musician this time.’

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I will prepare my soul for a promise with death.”  
> “You forgot to capitalize: A Promise with Death.”  
> “No, that was purposeful.”  
> “Yes, I know.”
> 
> “THAT WAS DARK”  
> /Discussion of darkness/


End file.
